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Between Here and There: Four Korean Voices

I came to understand that displacement creates a particular way of seeing—one that holds multiple places at once, that finds meaning in absence as much as presence.

This presentation brings together four Korean artists whose work emerges from this in-between space. Sangwon Lee captures crowds in their moments of joy, finding collective energy in gathered bodies. Sejung Lee traces the mediated distances between family members scattered across borders, making visible the emotional labor of staying connected. Joanne Lee gives form to invisibility itself—empty chairs that mark where immigrant lives should be seen but often aren't. Mary Lai transforms her experience navigating art world barriers into bold geometric abstractions, her vivid colors and tactile surfaces breaking through imposed limitations.

Each artist works from their own vantage point within the personal experience, yet their practices speak to one another. They render people as crowds, as individuals, as absences, as dynamic shapes. Together, they map the many ways we exist in a place that is not quite home, not quite foreign—always translating, always making ourselves seen.

Their Korean background provides a common root, but their art grows in different directions, shaped by personal histories and the particular weight of living between worlds. At the Venice Beach location, steps from the Pacific that connects continents, these works invite us to consider how we hold onto who we were while becoming who we are.